bosky was our Word of the Day on 07/09/2017. Hear the podcast!

bosky Has Roots in Middle English

Bosk,busk,bush-in Middle English these were all variant spellings of a word meaning "shrub." Bush is still familiar to the modern ear, and busk can still be heard in a few places in the dialects of northern Britain. Bosk too survived in English dialects, although it disappeared from the written language, and in the early 17th century it provided the root for the woodsy adjective bosky. Since its formation, bosky has been firmly rooted in our language, and its widespread popularity seems to have resurrected its parental form. By 1815 bosk (also spelled bosque) had reappeared in writing, but this time with the meaning "a small wooded area."